FOI reference: FOI-2025-2642
You asked
Please could you provide records of deaths in England in 2022 where Shingles was cited as the primary cause, with no other factors involved.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.
The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death,
or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.
The number of deaths registered in England in 2022 where shingles was the underlying cause was 44. Please note that there may have been other conditions mentioned on the death certificates for these deaths.
We have not produced figures for death where shingles was the only condition mentioned on the death certificate. The requested information would therefore need to be created as a custom output. Information on shingles only deaths along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order. Please note these services are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs in line with the ONS charging policy. Please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk for more information.